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January 10, 2013 9 Comments

Timothy Geithner and Me

Timothy Geithner

Photo by US Department of Labor / by CC BY 2.0

Timothy Geithner is resigning as Secretary of the Treasury and it makes me sad. You see, we were in this together and now he’s leaving. Let me explain.

In January 2009 after I’d had a headache for 10 months straight, I finally decided to visit a headache clinic in Michigan. On the coldest day of the year. Literally. I drove up the night before my all-day appointment, dragged my suitcase through the snow, and checked into my hotel room. Then I decided to go out to eat. My nose hairs froze on the way to the car and it took the heater several long minutes to warm up as I drove around an unfamiliar town.

It’s easy to get lost in a city you don’t know and even easier when it’s pitch black out. I didn’t have a GPS or a smartphone because this was 2009 and the iPhone wasn’t that much older than my headache itself. I remember driving around Ann Arbor looking for somewhere to eat, not knowing the name of the street I was on, just trying to remember how many turns it would take to get back to the hotel. I had NPR on the radio and it was so dark that it felt like I was in the same room with the reporters but with the lights off. And Timothy Geithner’s confirmation hearings were going on. The economy had recently crashed, so Secretary of the Treasury was a pretty significant gig. We were all getting a good laugh out of the fact that the man who’d have a big part in steering our economy had improperly filed his taxes in 2006. Congress was giving him grief about it.

So there I was in Michigan about to take a major step in the impossible health crisis in my life, and Timothy Geithner was in Washington about to take a major step in the impossible economic crisis in all of our lives. And I’ve always remembered that, driving through the dark, cold, night with Timothy Geithner, not knowing where the hell I was going. I don’t know why some things get stuck in my memory like those itty bitty pieces of lint that I can’t get out of the lint trap in the dryer. But this is one of them.

And now he’s leaving! How dare he! I suppose his battle is over. He’s done what he can with the economy and he’s off to make much more money doing something else, I’m sure. His part is over, and I’m still here with the same headache I’ve had for almost five years. It makes me sad that Timothy Geithner gets to leave the part of his life that started that January night and I don’t. It makes me sad that that part of my life is moving further and further into the past, making this part of my life stretch longer and longer. My memories will no longer be of current Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, but former Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner. And on and on and on until I’m telling this story to someone who wasn’t even born before the iPhone came out.

But that’s how it is. I managed to find my way back to my hotel that night and to the headache clinic the next day and through a thousand other steps that got me here to this moment now. My headache is not nearly as bad as it was back then, and the economy isn’t as bad as it was in 2009 either. I’ll keep on taking small steps, on and on through my life, but Timothy Geithner will no longer be my imaginary comrade on the journey.

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Leave a Comment (9) Read more about: 2009, economics, headache, headache clinic, recession, secretary of the treasury, Timothy Geithner

Jennette Fulda is the author of:

Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn't Go Away

"Smart, unflinchingly honest, and laugh-out-loud funny."

- Lisa Genova, New York Times best-selling author of Still Alice

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Comments

  1. Amanda says

    January 10, 2013 at 3:09 pm

    Yeah, these changes of the guard in life can get to a person. I still find it odd that many people who were born after the Titanic was found are not only fully-fledged adults, but in some cases are edging up on 30.

    Reply
  2. JenFul says

    January 10, 2013 at 4:20 pm

    @Amanda – At first I thought you’d said since the “sinking” of the Titanic and was like, “Damn, how old is my readership?” 🙂

    Reply
  3. Natalie says

    January 10, 2013 at 6:47 pm

    The main one that gets me is that I can remember thinking the year 2000 was coming up in a few years and making big plans. Now that is more than a decade in the past and many almost-teens were born after Y2K.

    Reply
  4. Amanda says

    January 10, 2013 at 10:34 pm

    @JenFul – LOL! Nah, born 1970 here. The Titanic was found in 1985, if memory serves me correctly (and bear in mind, I mean only my memory from this afternoon when I consulted the world’s primary tertiary source, Wikipedia).

    Reply
  5. Tamara says

    January 11, 2013 at 10:01 am

    This post really moved me. It’s amazing what we can link up in our minds.

    On another note, I live in metro Detroit and went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for undergrad (and got my master’s nearby in Ypsi at EMU), so I was mildly distracted while reading this with an insatiable curiosity about this important nugget of info: WHERE did you eat?! 😀

    Reply
  6. JenFul says

    January 11, 2013 at 4:54 pm

    @Tamara – I’ve been trying, but I can’t remember where I ate. I stayed at the Days Inn near Washtenaw and 23. (Which I don’t recommend. The Comfort Inn next door is nicer) So I must have eaten somewhere around there. Maybe at the Panera next to the Barnes & Noble?

    Reply
  7. Tamara says

    January 11, 2013 at 4:57 pm

    @JenFul – Understandable… it’s been a while! If you ever find your way up here again, you’ll have to let me know. We can find you something more interesting than Panera! (And of course we’ll hope for better weather, too. :D)

    Thanks for the hotel info. I haven’t stayed in either, but that will be good to have in mind if anyone ever asks for recs.

    Reply
  8. JenFul says

    January 11, 2013 at 6:03 pm

    @Tamara – I’ve stayed at at least 4-5 different hotels in Ann Arbor. The Comfort Inn was my favorite because it was the lowest priced one at which I also felt safe and fairly comfortable. Avoid the Lantern Inn. That place is creepy! And the Days Inn wasn’t that much better. The hotels near the mall are nice, but more expensive.

    Reply
  9. Tamara says

    January 14, 2013 at 1:53 pm

    @JenFul – Good to know! I agree, the mall area gets pricy but the hotels are definitely nice.

    If you haven’t tried it, get to Seva next time you’re here. It’s a delicious vegetarian restaurant. I’m not a vegetarian, but I love their food.

    Reply

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Jennette Fulda tells stories to the Internet about her life as a smartass, writer, chronic headache sufferer, (former?) weight-loss inspiration, and seemingly nice person (who is silently judging you). You can contact her if you promise to be nice.

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